Sarah Breedlove Walker
(1869-1919), millionaire cosmetic manufacturer, was born a pauper in
Louisiana. Her ex-slave parents died when she was six years old. She
married C.J. Walker at the age of 14 and was a widow at 20. Taking
in laundry to make a living, she experimented in her spare time with
a concoction of oils to condition her hair so that she could remove
the typical ‘Negro’ curl. The oil softened the hair but did not
remove the excessive curl. It was in 190 that she developed a hot
iron, or straitening comb, which could remove the tight curls.

For millions of women of African
descent the straightening comb was an answer to their major cosmetic
problem; and Madame Walked found herself in business. She opened a
school of cosmetology to train her operators, employed agents to
sell her products and built a factory to produce them. Before her
death, she had more than 2,000 agents selling and demonstrating the
“Walker System” of hair styling and cosmetics. She maintained an
annual payroll of more than $200,000 and reaped a sizable fortune
from her large factory and school in Indianapolis. She advertised in
all of the Black* publications and made headlines herself because of
her social activities.

At the cost of about $250,000, she
built a mansion at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, New York, and furnished
it with the most expensive items available. Despite this display of
her wealth, she was deeply concerned with the poverty of others and,
like other American millionaires, became a philanthropist. She
bequeathed $100,000 towards the establishment of an academy for
girls in West Africa and donated large sums of money to Black*
institutions and charities in America.

***

Source: International Library of Negro Life and
History by Wilhelmena S. Robinson, Publishers Company, Inc., New
York, Washington, London under the auspices of The Association for
the Study of Negro Life and History (1967).*Black has been
substituted for the word “Negro” originally used in this citation.